While today, the 14th of September, is my birthday, I baked this delicious Banana Cake with Toasted Walnuts and Ermine frosting to celebrate the birthdays of two other women as well as myself, all of us within a few days of the other. We’re also all participants in Music Night and I like to celebrate … More Happy Birthday to Yumiko, Lisa and Me
The last time that I visited my sister, one of her friends popped by, looked at me and said, “Did you bring cookies for Laurie?” Indeed, I had brought cookies and other things, as usual, and I knew that Annette would likely be the recipient of one or two cookies or something else I’d baked. … More New! My Lemon Shortbread Cookies
Over the past few weeks I’ve experimented with cookies made with walnuts and semisweet chocolate. Two versions were for a friend who’s a diabetic, so I used brown sugar substitute erythritol by Swerve and whole wheat flour which gives less glycemic load than all-purpose flour. The first of those used some almond flour with the … More Finding the Ultimate while experimenting with Chocolate Chip Cookies
The resident lady who hobby is our flower gardens has a birthday today. She likes lemon cake so I made a 3-layer lemon cake, fresh lemon curd and lemon cream cheese frosting. I couldn’t help myself, though. I had to decorate with Washington cherries from Rainier Fruit. And guess what’s out hopping around the lawn? … More Happy Birthday to Our Gardener
Recently one of my Chinese Mahjongg ladies gave me a Chinese cookie with sesame seeds in it and I was reminded that I’d had an idea for a butter cookie with things I associate with Lebanese sweets. Another one of the ladies here (who is a world-class gardener) provided me with rose petals mid-June to … More New! Flavors of Lebanon Butter Cookie
Having just returned from a wondrous and joy-filled 75th birthday trip to Salt Lake City sponsored by my daughter, life in Bitter Lake returns and so does Thursday afternoon Chinese mahjongg with my lady friends. While there will be a little birthday party next week for the “mother” of our local mahjongg, I decided for … More Cranberry-Strawberry Upside-Down Cake with My Recipe
On the hot Saturday just past, I stayed in, spent 1 hour pitting over 2 pounds of beautiful, firm, delicious Washington dark cherries with a knife because the cherries were too big for the cherry pitter, then letting them macerate for 2 hours in lemon juice and half the sugar most recipes call for, then … More Che-Cher-Cherry Jam
As I said in the previous post, I’m sending birthday surprises to my sweet, sweet sister-in-law who never reads this blog so she won’t see this and the surprise will not be spoiled. These three surprises are all my originals and include Golden Lemon Butter Cookies, the new Lemon Vanilla Spring Sprinkles Snicks and the … More Birthday Surprises
I’ve had an intention to create a trio of cookies using culinary matcha after I discovered a taste for, first, green tea Frappucino at Starbucks and second, Fred Meyer’s Private Selection Matcha Ice Cream. Last week I bought some culinary matcha and on Saturday did the first experimental matcha cookie in two forms, a butter … More Matcha Butter Cookies for Little Chinese New Year
Before mahjongg this afternoon, a bit of baking for my ladies. This is a cookie we made at Christmastime when I was young, twisting the dough pieces into a candy cane shape rather than straight like these. I’ve had it in my recipe box for a long time, but haven’t made it in at least … More Sour Cream Twists
Ms Chef in Seattle 